Misery
by taters4u
Summary: After writing a string of successful novels, Sonic felt it was time to hang it up, retreating to a cabin in the mountains where he always went to finish his books. But after a freak snowstorm causes him to have a near fatal accident, he wakes up in the care of Amy Rose, a nurse. But when he lets her read the copy of his final novel, it may be the biggest mistake of his life.
1. Chapter 1: The Accident

Chapter One: The Accident

Welcome to the re-revised version of Misery. Anyone familiar with movies will easily recognize this as Stephen King's Misery. Sure, it's not original, but I've always wanted to see a sequel to it, and I know it'll never happen so that's why I've done these. The first time I uploaded these, large chunks of a few chapters were italicized for no reason and one or two of them were entirely underlined. If that happens again, it was probably part of the uploading process. I am stuck using Windows 98 after all. I'm also keeping these in their original lengths with the exception of two of the chapters, which I merged together because one was really short. I hope you enjoy.

Sonic had been coming to the Silver Springs hotel for the last 7 years. After the war with Robotnik had ended, he needed to do more than just sit around the house or go out on patrol, something of which became pointless as time went on. The danger of Robotnik attacking was slim to none since Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters had finally beaten him for good years ago, something which none of them ever thought they'd be able to do. Still, Sonic managed to come up with a way to keep himself occupied. He began writing a series of novels, and a very successful series it was.

He took it up just after the war ended and the disbanding of the Freedom Fighters as a way to occupy his time. One day, Sally came across some of his work and, after the initial 'that's private' argument, he reluctantly agreed to let her read it. When she finished it, she told him he should consider trying to get it published or at least looked at. It took a little encouragement on her part, but he sent it out to several publishing companies and the rest was history. His first book in the series, 'Misery Chastain', had sold over 1 million copies, providing enough money to keep Sonic and Sally living comfortably. They had given some of their money to charity as well as friends. They even gave Tails enough to refurnish his Lab and upgrade most of his equipment.

The first novel of his had been written at home but, the final draft and clean up had been done at a cabin in the mountains he rented. It wasn't that Sally bothered him or that he kept getting distracted, far from it. He enjoyed her company and welcomed the criticism she offered. It was just one of those, 'writers quirks' as he put it.

This time, Sonic had just finished not one, but two books. One being the final entry of the Misery series, and the second was a project that was completely different from what he had written before. He decided to take his next one in a different direction and see what the public's opinion of his writing abilities were, wondering if they would still accept him as an author that could have success without a powerhouse franchise behind him and prove he wasn't just a one-trick pony.

His last hours before checkout had flown by pretty fast. He had not only finished the final Misery book, but had also finished his other work, which was loosely based on his upbringing in an orphanage. "I wish I could come up with a title for you." Sonic said to his untitled book. He looked at the clock and realized that it was almost time to check out. "Better start packing." he said to himself. Sonic quickly packed his things and placed them into the car he always drove, a slightly worn yet loved powder blue sports car. Sally never liked the idea of him going to the mountains at this time of year but there was no changing his mind.

Sonic paid for his room and had one final item on his to-do list: call Sally. The owner had a bare-bones set-up, which meant no phones, TV or electronics in the cabins. You could rent a TV for cheap if you wanted one, but it was a honeymoon retreat. For Sonic, it meant that he wouldn't have any distractions or be bothered by anyone. Of course, Sonic had made an exception to that rule when it came to Sally and Tails. He found a payphone in the lobby which was off to the side and private and dialed the number to the house he and Sally had been sharing since moving in together a few years ago. The phone rang for a few second's before Sally answered.

"Hello?" Sally said.

"Hi Sally, it's me." Sonic said. "I've got a surprise for you." he said in a slight sing-song tone.

"Really? And that is?" She asked, knowing these phone calls only meant one thing but she played along with it.

"I'm gonna be heading out in a little while." He said.

He couldn't see her, but he knew she was smiling. "Really? I didn't think you would finish both of them so soon. When do you think you'll be home?" she asked eagerly.

"Probably tonight, early tomorrow morning at the most." Sonic told her.

"It'd be faster if you just ran back here instead of taking that car every year." Sally said.

"I know. But there's just... something about it that I enjoy. Plus it gives me some time to think, you know." Sonic told her.

"Okay. I just hope you'll be careful on your way back, Sonic." Sally told him.

"I will. I love you, Sally." Sonic told her.

"I love you too." Sally said, hanging up her end of the phone.

Sonic hung up his end and walked out to his car. _Good thing Tails is there to keep her company. I don't know what I'd do without him. _Sonic thought to himself. Tails would stay with Sally when he left as a way to keep her company. She hated to be alone and even though he called her at least once a day to keep her up-to-date on how his work was progressing, she really had no one to talk to. Tails was more than happy to help, since Sonic was his best friend and, it gave him someone to talk to as well instead of being cooped up in his lab 24/7.

Sonic, finally packed and ready to go was just about to get in his car when he noticed the sky had changed. The sun was gone, replaced with dark clouds. "Man, that can't be good. Better get outta here while I still can." he said. Before he climbed into the car, he reached down and gathered up a handful of snow and molded it into a ball and threw it at a tree just off to the side of the cabin he had been staying in. He threw it and it landed smack in the middle and he grinned. "Still got it." he said as he climbed in, started the car and headed for home.

He flicked the radio on to the only station that could be picked up in the mountains, an oldies station. Blue was never a big fan of oldies but since it was the only thing the car would pick up until he was able to receive other stations, he left it there.

He looked over to the passenger seat and realized he forgot to close up the satchel that held his two newly completed works and reached over and snapped it closed. The snow was falling fiercely now, making driving conditions almost impossible the further he drove down the mountain.

The road had all but disappeared at this point and he was driving on pure instinct. He could barely see more than fifteen feet in front of him and everything was a sheet of white. The wipers were working overtime, clearing snow as it fell on the windshield just as fast as it could build up. _This is bad._ he thought as he turned a corner blindly. Fortunately there were no other cars on the road from what he could tell which was a miracle on his part. _Maybe I should pull over._ he thought, but he couldn't even tell where 'over' was at this point. To make matters even worse, the car was getting harder to handle as the tires began to spin intermittently.

_This is getting ridi-_ "Shit!" He exclaimed as he saw something run in front of his car. Sonic panicked and slammed his foot down on the brake pedal which caused the tires to lock up. As the car slid over the ice and snow, his body was thrown forward as the front bumper came into contact with a guard rail on the side of the road, causing his small sixty pound frame to lurch forward, almost slamming into the steering wheel, but fortunately the seatbelt he was wearing prevented that from happening.

Unfortunately, the guard rail did little to stop the car and it broke through. Luckily it wasn't a sheer drop, but a steep hill. As the car rolled on it's side, Sonic's body bounced around inside the vehicle as it tumbled downward, his head banging around off the ceiling and steering wheel like a ping pong ball, glass shattering and causing various cuts to his face.

It was all over in less than twenty seconds and the car finally came to rest at the bottom of the slope, landing upside down on the car's crushed roof. His head was pounding and his vision was fuzzy from his head banging into everything and he was starting to lose consciousness. _Need... to... he thought as his eyes began to grow heavy. "Sally... Sally..." he called out weakly. That was his last clear memory he had before he slipped into unconsciousness._

_Thanks for reading._


	2. Chapter 2: The Aftermath

Chapter Two: The Aftermath

"_It's ok. You're going to be just fine." That was what Sonic heard as he began to regain consciousness. "I'm your number one fan. There's nothing to worry about. You're going to be fine." the voice said. He slowly began opening his eyes, but his vision was still blurry and his eyes were taking their time focusing in. In his daze, he could barely make out a blurry grey figure standing over him. "How..." Sonic asked, his voice weak from the crash._

"_About three days." the figure said. As his vision began to return, he saw it was a fellow Mobian, a female hedgehog, kind green eyes and pink fur, wearing a nurse's uniform. Sonic also noticed she was wearing a pair of rubber gloves on her hands as his vision finally cleared. "My name is Amy Rose. I'm a nurse." Amy said. Her voice was soft, comforting. _

"_Where..." Sonic started to ask before Amy stopped him._

"_You're in my house." she replied, her voice kind and soft.._

_Sonic tried to move and a bolt of pain shot through his entire body. "Nngh!" he yelped. Amy shook her head and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel. "Don't move. You'll only aggravate your injuries." She said. Sonic simply nodded as he felt himself slip back into unconsciousness._

_Two days later_

_Sonic woke up to find Amy sitting by his bed. "Good morning." She said in a cheery voice. "Did you sleep well?" She asked Sonic._

"_Yeah." he replied. It was the first time in the last two days he felt halfway normal and not in a haze._

_He watched as she stood up and reached into a pocket of the apron she was wearing and held her hand out to him. "Here, take these." she said, unclenching her hand, revealing two pills. "They're called Phenotol. They're for your pain." She said, as Sonic took them and placed them in his mouth. Amy held a glass of water to his mouth and gently tilted it until he had enough to get the capsules down his throat._

"_How did I get here?" Sonic asked Amy as she set the glass of water on the table beside his bed and sat back down._

"_Actually, I found you by complete accident. Luckily for you I happened to be driving into town that day." She shook her head in disbelief. "I thought it was odd to see someone else out on the road that day, what with that storm coming-"_

"_I-I didn't know there was a storm coming." Sonic said._

"_Well" Amy continued without missing a beat, "Lucky for you I happened to be driving behind you when you went off the road. I pulled over and went down the side of the road and who do I see lying in that car but Sonic the Hedgehog!" Her eyes sparkled when she said his name. "I tried to get the door open, but I guess the crash warped the door or something. I tried to open it but I couldn't so I ran back to my truck and grabbed the crowbar I always keep in the back, ran down and got the door open. And to my surprise, I find you there, unconscious. I pulled you out, placed you in my truck and brought you here." Amy said._

"_Why didn't you take me to a hospital?" Sonic asked. He mentally kicked himself for sounding so ungrateful, but it was a valid question._

"_Well I would have, but by then roads were snowed in and I couldn't make it to a hospital much less into town." She said. "When I got home with you, I called the hospital in Station Square and told them who I was, and told them who you were. I spoke to the head doctor and told them about your injuries." She said as she stood up. "But I managed to get you patched up pretty good." She said, pulling back the blankets. Sonic's eyes grew twice their size when he saw his body._

"_You dislocated your right shoulder. It was a little stubborn but I managed to pop it back into place." she said. It was resting in a sling and he was surprised he hadn't felt it underneath the blanket. "You had multiple bruises all over your body including two of your ribs. At first I thought you might've punctured one of your lungs but, you were breathing ok, which ruled that out. But the work I'm most proud of is the work I did on those legs of yours." She said, revealing Sonic's legs. They were a battered mess. Even under the blue fur, he could make out the large purple and black bruises that ran the length of both his legs._

"_You have a hairline fracture of the Tibia in the right leg and the Fibula on your left." Both legs were being held still by crude splints that looked like they were made from whatever Amy could scrounge up, a couple of 2x4's and a broomstick wrapped in white cloth. "I can hear the bones moving around, so that's a good sign." Amy said. It was a little shocking, but at least he was alive._

"_Are the phone's working yet?" Sonic asked, knowing that Sally was probably going out of her mind. "Well, mine's not.' Amy said as she pulled the blanket back over him. "But the one's in town are as far as I know." Amy said._

"_The next time your there, can you call my girlfriend for me? I'd like to let her know where I am and that I'm ok." Sonic said. Amy walked over to a large shelf by the door and grabbed a pen out of a cup and a scrap piece of paper. She handed it to Sonic and he gave her the phone number which she wrote down and stuck in her apron pocket._

"_I'll try it next time I'm in town. Oh, I almost forgot." Amy said as she headed out the door. She came back in less than a minute, holding something in her hands._

"_I got this off the passenger seat when I pulled you out of the wreck." She said, handing Sonic the leather bag that had his finished works inside it along with his new book._

_He breathed a sigh of relief as Amy presented the satchel to him. "Oh thank God!" He said, a smile on his face. "I thought it was destroyed in the crash." Sonic said, a smile across his face._

"_Important stuff?" Amy asked._

"_It's a new story I've been working on. Would you like to read it?" Sonic asked Amy._

"_REALLY!?" Amy exclaimed, a look on her face that rivaled a child on Christmas day getting everything they asked for. "Of course I would Sonic! Thank you!" She said, taking the manuscript out of Sonic's hands. She bent down and gave him a kiss on the cheek._

"_It's the least I could do to repay you for saving my life. Do you think you could come up with a title for me? I haven't been able to think of one since I started writing it." Sonic said. Amy nodded eagerly as she reached in and pulled one of the two unbounded manuscripts out. "It's the top one." He said. She nodded and pulled it out._

"_I'll try. I'm gonna go start reading right now." Amy said, walking out of the room. Sonic smiled and leaned back against the pillow as the painkillers he had taken began to ease his pain._

_A few hours later:_

"_Sonic..." Amy said as she sat by the side of the bed, feeding him spoonfuls of tomato soup. It was a little embarrassing for him to be fed like a baby, but with his left arm broken and his right still sore from when Amy set it, he was in no position to hold a bowl of soup or anything for that matter. "Oh forget it, it's nothing." She said, a hint of despair in her voice._

"_What is it Amy?" Sonic asked._

"_Well it's about the book you gave me earlier." she sighed. "No, I shouldn't say anything. After all, who am I to judge someone to pass criticism on someone like you." She said._

"_No Amy, tell me. I can handle criticism." Sonic told her._

_She had another spoonful of soup in her hand and set it back in the bowl, letting out a long sigh. "It's the swearing Sonic." Amy said bluntly._

"_What's wrong with it?" Sonic asked._

"_Nobody talks like that." Amy replied._

"_I talked like that when I was in the orphanage. All the kids did. Everyone talks like that." Sonic said._

"_No they don't!" Amy exclaimed. "I don't go into the store and say ' Hey Wally, give me a sack of that effin pig feed!'" Her cheeks were flushed and the anger on her face was building quickly. "Or-or 'Give me a bag of that bitchly cow corn!'" Her hands were starting to shake, causing the spoon in the bowl of soup to clank around. "And when I go into the bank, I don't walk up to the teller and say ' Here's one big bastard of a check!'" Amy yelled, her hands flailing wildly causing the thick soup to spill out of the bowl and onto the bed._

_Sonic stared at her, dumbfounded at the sudden burst of anger that came out of such a sweet natured girl. As quick as it began, the outburst was over and she realized what she'd done. "Oh, Sonic, I didn't mean..." she said, embarrassed about what she'd done. "Sometimes I-I just lose my temper. Can you forgive me?" She asked Sonic. "It's ok, Amy." Sonic said, a smile on his face. "I'll get you some clean sheets." she said, taking the empty bowl of soup with her as she left the room.._

_End notes: Again, if this or any of the other chapters have large chunks italicized or underlined for no reason, it wasn't my fault. I don't know what's going on. Hope you enjoy this and thanks for reading._


	3. Chapter 3: Amy's Dark Side

Chapter 3: Amy's Dark Side

After Amy had finished changing the sheets on Sonic's bed, she left to go into town. She had returned about 30 minutes later and headed straight for Sonic's room. She opened the door and went inside, a look of pure excitement on her face. "Look what I found Sonic!" She exclaimed. In her hands, she had a paperback copy of the final 'Misery' book. "I didn't think it was going to come out so soon. I just went to the store for a few thing's and to my surprise, I saw it on the shelves. Well, when I saw it and slammed my money down on the counter." She said.

"I hope you like it, Amy." Sonic said.

"Oh I know I will." Amy said to Sonic. "I'm gonna start reading it right now." Amy said to him. She stopped just before she got to the door. "You need anything before I start reading?" She asked Sonic.

"I could use a couple more pills if you have anymore." Sonic told her. He wanted to scream the pain in his legs was so bad, and to top it off, as the bones healed there was an intense itching as well which was murder on him. For the most part he could block it out with his mind. But there were times when it drove him to the brink of insanity.

"Of course I do. I'll be right back." Amy said. She returned a minute later. "Here you go." She said handing Sonic the two of the precious capsules and a glass of water. Sonic took them out of her hand and tossed them in his mouth, followed by a swallow of water. "Is that it?" She asked Sonic.

"Yeah. That's all. Thank you." Sonic said.

"Ok, I'm gonna go start reading the new book right now." Amy said as she left the room.

Buster let out a long sigh, gazing out the window of the sheriffs station. Of course, being the sheriff of a town the size of Silver Springs meant there never was anything to do, other than the occasional complaint from one of the locals. The last call he received was that someone had lost their cat. But, he had been contemplating retiring. He was in his early 60's, but he was far from feeling that he was getting too 'old' to do his job, far from it. He was in great shape, a mountain of a man for his age. He stood just under 6'2, an imposing figure and aside from his white hair and moustache, he could easily keep up with someone twice his junior.

He let out a sigh and leaned back in his office chair. _I wonder where Vir-_ *RING* Buster jumped as the phone suddenly came to life. When it rang, it was a special occasion since it meant that he finally had something to occupy his boredom. He picked it up and held it to his ear.

"Thank you for calling the Silver Spring's Sheriffs Department, this is Buster. How can I help you?" Buster said.

Sally was on the other end of the line. "My name is Sally Acorn. I'd like to speak to whoever is in charge there." Sally said.

"Well, who do you want to talk to? The Sheriff or the Chief of Police?" Buster asked.

"Whichever one is not busy." Sally said.

"Well I'm pretty sure there both not busy Ms. Acorn since they're both me. I also happen to be Fire Marshall, the head of the Planning committee and... if you need a good fishing guide, well you could do a lot worse." He said. "What can I do for you?"

"I feel like a fool for calling you, but I'm worried that something may have happened to my boyfriend." She said.

He reached over and grabbed a pen and the stack of Post-it's™. "What's his name?" Buster asked.

"Sonic." She replied.

"Oh yes... I know him. Everyone here knows who he is. What makes you think something happened to him?" Buster asked Sally.

"Well he was due back home about... two days ago, at least that's what he told me when I last talked to him. If he was going to be late or something like that, he'd call and let me know about it, but I haven't heard anything from him since his last call." Sally said.

"Mm-hmm. And it's been two days since you've heard from him?" Buster asked.

"That's right. The last time he called was the day he left the Silver Springs hotel." Sally said.

"Well I can put his name in the system and call you if anything comes up about him." Buster said, writing everything down on a Post-it™ note and placing it on a bulletin board behind him. "That's about all I can do for right now." Buster said.

"Well thank you for your help." Sally said. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye Ms. Acorn." Buster said hanging up the phone.

"A phone call? Busy morning." A woman said, entering the sheriff's station just before Buster hung up the phone carrying a bag of groceries. It was Virginia, Buster's wife of thirty five years and, thanks to Silver Springs being such a small town, served as his deputy.

"Yeah, work, work, work." He said, turning his gaze out the window again. "Virginia, when was that snowstorm we had?" He asked as he twirled the pen between his fingers.

"Last Tuesday... why?" She asked.

"No reason." Buster said, shaking his head slightly.

Amy's house:

That night as Sonic finished his dinner, he watched the rain fall outside his bedroom window. To any other person, that would've seemed boring, but he didn't have a TV in his room. The only other TV was in the living room. He was in no shape to get up and go watch it and since it was a rather large set according to Amy, she couldn't just wheel it into his room. As soon as he finished, Amy had entered the room with the perfect timing she seemed to possess and took the empty tray from him. "Oh Sonic, the new Misery book is just wonderful. I'm almost at the end." She said.

_Damn, she's a fast reader. She just started reading it this morning._ Sonic thought. "Glad you're enjoying it." Sonic said with a smile.

"I should be finished by morning." Amy said, as she handed Sonic two more Phenotol capsules and a glass of water. He took them and lay back on the pillow. "Do you want anything else, Sonic?" Amy asked before she left out of the room.

"No. I'm fine. Thank you." Sonic said. "Goodnight Amy." Sonic said.

"Goodnight Sonic." Amy said, flashing him a smile as she left the room.

The storm had intensified over the next several hours and was not accompanied by a spectacular show of thunder and lightning. Sonic was dead asleep, but being up in the mountains, thunder and lightning were much louder and he almost jumped out of bed as a loud *CRACK* and rumble of thunder woke him out of a dead sleep. As he opened his eyes, he could make out Amy's figure as the lightning flashing through the window lit her up. "_You_." Amy growled, her voice low and menacing.

"What?" Sonic said.

"You _know_ what I'm talking about." Amy said coldly. "Misery can't be dead. Misery Chastain CANNOT BE DEAD! Who killed her!" Amy demanded.

"No one. No one killed her. She died giving birth, she died, and she just slipped away." Sonic said.

The Misery books were set in a time before cars, planes and electricity was a luxury for the rich. Misery, the main heroine of the story was torn between two men, Ian and Winthorne. They were both dating her at the same time, and as a result, she became pregnant by one of them. She knew who the father was, but decided to wait until after the birth of her baby to tell both of them who the father was, but before she could, she died giving birth to her only son. Sonic decided to leave it up to the reader to decide who the father was.

"SLIPPED AWAY? SLIPPED AWAY?" she screamed. The corners of her mouth were dripping with spit. "YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT! YOU KILLED MY MISERY!" Amy screamed as she walked over to the door and picked up a small table, the plant sitting on top of it falling to the floor. She stomped over to the left side of Sonic's bed, keeping her gaze locked to his eyes. "YOU DID IT, YOU DID IT!" She kept yelling as she lifted the small table over her head.

"Amy, Amy!" Sonic yelled as he raised his arm in an attempt to protect his head. Amy swung the table into the wall just above Sonic's head, shattering it into small pieces, bits of wood falling onto his fur. Amy tossed a piece of the table's leg off to the side and stomped towards the door. She placed a hand on the knob, but instead of turning it, she slowly turned toward Sonic and he felt his blood run cold.

"I thought you were one of the good one's Sonic." She said in a voice that would make Satan himself freeze in his tracks. Her face went from blood rage to an almost euphoric. "I don't think I can be around you for a while." She turned to leave but said something that made Sonic's heart skip a beat. "Oh, and I never called anyone about you." she said, her tone of voice cold and emotionless. "Not the police, not your girlfriend, no one. No one knows you're here. And you better pray that nothing happens to me. Because if I die... you die." Amy said before leaving the room. Sonic sat frozen, waiting for her to come back with a kitchen knife to kill him, but instead, he saw the headlights of her truck shine briefly through the bedroom window as she drove off into the night; Sonic didn't sleep a moment that night.

The next morning:

Amy had returned around 11:00 that morning. "Good morning, Sonic" Amy said as she entered Sonic's room, chipper and acting as if nothing had happened between them. "I know that after what I did last night, I don't deserve to ask this, but can you forgive me?" She asked.

He was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that this was the same woman that had smashed a small table above his head just twelve hours before. Sonic looked at her for a few seconds, choosing his words carefully before speaking. "It's ok." Sonic said, keeping his words simple and to the point.

"Oh good." Amy said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Sometimes I don't realize what comes out of my mouth. That happened in Station Square a few years back when I was on the witness stand..." Amy said, trailing off. _That's odd..._ he thought, but common sense told him to ignore it. "Can I get you something to eat, Sonic? You look hungry." Amy said with a smile on her face and concern in her eyes.

"Yeah, but not too much. Maybe a light lunch." Sonic said. _And get me my damn pills!_ He wanted to yell that so bad, the pain in his legs screaming out again.

"Ok. But first there's something I want you to do for me." Amy said. She left the room and returned in a minute dragging a large outdoor grill.

Sonic's heart skipped a beat when he saw her dragging the grill in behind her, and imagined more than a few quick horrible scenarios on how she would use it, but Sonic kept things cool. "When I mentioned a light lunch, I was thinking cheese and crackers. That kind of thing." Sonic said.

"No Sonic. This is so you can burn your past and rid the world of this... filth." Amy said, pulling off the lid and revealing what was inside. On the metal grill laid a box of matches, a can of lighter fluid and Sonic's untitled manuscript which she had criticized for having too many naughty words. Amy took the box of matches and the can of lighter fluid off the grill and opened the cap, dousing the manuscript with the lighter fluid while Sonic watched everything unfold. She covered the top pages with fluid until they were soaked, then lifted up a few more and squirting them.

"Sonic," Amy said as she finished dousing the pages in the flammable liquid. "This needs to be done. If you don't get rid of it now, you'll be doing your conscience a favor. This kind of work is above you." Amy said handing Sonic the box of matches.

"Amy" Sonic began; "There's already a copy with my publisher. This is not the only copy. I just keep this one for sentimental reasons. If you want me to destroy it, I will." Sonic said.

"Oh Sonic, I know there isn't another copy of it. You only make one copy of every book you write., just like when you wrote the first Misery book. You kept the only copy in that bag until you found a publisher. You also didn't make any other copies because you were self conscious about it and ever since you've never made more than one copy in case things didn't work out.. So please, Sonic, get rid of it. If not for me, then for yourself." Amy said.

"I'll tell you what. I'll keep it for myself. No one else has to see it. It'll just be for me." he said, trying to save his new work. It was already projected to have a million copies sold at launch.

"But your soul will never be truly set free if you don't." She said, her voice unnervingly calm.

Sonic hesitated for a second before he realized he had no choice. _If I don't do this, she'll likely flip out again, and there's no telling what she'll do to me then. Sonic thought. He took a single match out and struck it along the side of the box, the smell of sulfur filling his nose as the spark gave life to flame. He gave one last look at the pages lying on the grill, said a last goodbye to it in his head, and tossed the match into the grill. The second the match came into contact with the papers they caught fire immediately, causing a loud WHOOSH and flames to rise a couple feet into the air. "Oh goodness gracious! Oh my!" Amy exclaimed in an exaggerated voice as pieces of burning paper flew up in the air, some catching on the curtains and one on the bed which burned out quickly. Amy dragged the grill containing the fireball away from Sonic and ran outside the door to retrieve a bucket of water she had placed in advance._

_She poured the bucket of water on the fire and it hissed in a smoky mess, bits of burned paper still flying through the air, the room filled with white smoke. "Isn't that an oogy mess?" she said as she tipped the bucket over and let the last remaining drops of water fall on the grill. Sonic watched as Amy wheeled the grill and the last six months of his life out of the room._

_Hope you enjoy and if you can read this, you don't need glasses. See you in chapter 4._


	4. Chapter 4: Almost Caught

Chapter 4: Almost Caught

After Amy had wheeled away his burnt manuscript, things went back to normal and she brought Sonic his lunch, a simple peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. It was a little unnerving that she watched him the whole time, but he couldn't say anything and tried to move on as normally as he could. When he was finished, she took the dirty dishes to the kitchen and came back, stopping just outside the door. "Sonic, I'm so proud of you getting rid of that _filth_ on your own, so I got a surprise for you!" Amy said joyfully. _On my own? You made me do it you crazy bitch. _Sonic thought. She came into the room, pushing a wheelchair behind her. "Wow. If this is what I get when I burn one of my books. I should go ahead and burn them all." He said with a small laugh. Amy rolled the chair over to the side of the bed.

"I'm not sure about this." Sonic said as Amy removed the arm of the chair closest to the side of his bed and sat Sonic in an upright position. He grunted as his legs screamed out in pain, but he dared not make his agony known more than a simple grunt. "All right, I'm going to swing you over into it that way you won't have to stand." She said. He braced himself as best he could as Amy placed both arms under Sonic's. "Now, on three, I'm gonna swing you into it, ok? One, two, three." On the count of three, she lifted Sonic as if he weighed nothing, right onto the seat of the chair, his legs stretched out across the bed.

"NNNGH!" He grunted as his legs screamed even louder, his breathing heavy and quick. "Ok, now I'll just get your legs." Amy said. She put the pedals in their correct position, placing them where they stuck straight out, and grabbed Sonic's legs. "AHHHH!" Sonic yelled in pain as his vision went blurry for a second. Even though he was healing fast as he always did, these were some of the most extensive injuries he'd ever suffered and with that came a lengthy healing process, even for him. "Sorry. Boy, your legs just sing grand opera, don't they?" Amy said.

"Mmmmm." Sonic moaned in response to her query. "Oh you're such a crybaby." Amy joked as she began to push him around inside the room. "Oh, just what I always wanted to see, the other side of the room" Sonic said flatly, finally able to open his mouth.

"Now is that the kind of attitude you're going to have while you write a new Misery novel for me?" Amy asked.

Sonic looked at her with disbelief. "What?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes. That's what God told me in a dream I had the other night when I was up in my cabin. Sometimes I go up there when the world gets to be too much. When I go up there I can do whatever I want and no one can hear me. Sometimes I'll just sit there, staring at the walls, not saying anything. Or I might just scream as loud as I can. Whatever gets the anger out of my system." Amy said.

Amy left the room for a few minutes and started bringing in everything he'd need for his new task. First she brought in a small square card table and set it up by the window, rolling Sonic over to it. Next, she produced a typewriter that as far as Sonic could tell, looked like it weighed over 50 lbs and looked like it was made at least 70 yeas ago. She sat the typewriter down on the table and turned it around so the keys were facing Sonic. "I hope you like it. I got it from the antique shop in town. And I got it at a great deal too since it's missing the N." The final ingredient she supplied were three reams of paper for Sonic to use which she placed on the table. "Did I do good?" She asked, looking for a sign of approval from Sonic.

"There's just one problem, it smudges." Sonic told her. "I can't use this paper Amy."

"But I got the best paper they had. It cost the most, so I can't see what could be wrong with it." Amy said, a slight tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"Have a look." Sonic said, grabbing one of the reams of paper and opening it. He always took comfort upon opening a fresh package of paper and this time was no exception, despite his situation. He placed a sheet on to the typewriter roller, and rolled it into position. He typed the word 'smudge' and pulled it off the roller. Placing it on the table, he ran a finger over the paper. The ink from the keys had indeed smudged. Amy looked at it, then ran her finger over the paper. It smudged for her too. "Huh. It does smudge, what do ya know." She said, the emotion gone out of her voice.

"I thought you'd like to be involved in the book completely. Not just how it's written but everything involved." He said.

"Thank you for thinking about me. I can get you some new paper right now." Amy said. "Is there anything else I can get you while I'm in town? Maybe a pair of handmade writing slippers!?" Her voice steadily began reaching it's anger laden crescendo. "Or maybe a tiny tape recorder!? How about a tiny pillow for your head, so in case you get tired you can lay your head down when you get tired!? Would you like that? Cause I can bring back the WHOLE cockadoodie store for you if you want!" Amy said angrily, her eyes wide.

"No, just the paper will be fine." Sonic said, trying not to let his fear show.

"I don't know what I've done to you to make you SO unhappy. I've cooked for you, I've cleaned for you, I've changed your bandages, I changed your clothes and what thanks do I get for it? 'Oh you bought the wrong paper Amy, I can't write on this paper Amy!' Well you better start showing me a little more appreciation Mr. Man." She said finishing her rant. He tried to speak, but Amy had walked over to the table and grabbed one of the heavy reams of paper and slammed it down on Sonic's legs, causing him to yell out in pain. "AHHHHH!" Sonic yelled. Amy stormed out of the room and locked the door, a new tactic on her part. Sonic watched through the window as she climbed into her truck and left. As soon as he was sure she was gone, he wheeled over to the door and tried to open it, even though he clearly heard the sound of the lock clicking. "Damn." He said as he took his hand off the knob. He leaned back in the chair, but out of the corner of his eye, Sonic noticed something lying on the ground a few feet from the door. A bobby pin. Sonic realized that he could unlock the door and escape the hellhole he was in and he gleefully rolled over to where the pin was.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, he finally picked the pin off the ground and rolled it over to the door. He bent the pin into the shape of a capital T and stuck it into the lock, giving it a few turns. "Come on; open for me you son of a bitch." He said out loud. He had learned how to pick locks when he was in the orphanage. A skill that came in handy late at night when he couldn't sleep. Being as fast as he was, he could leave at night and return before morning, and no one would know. When the war between Robotnik and the rest of Mobius had broken out, he further perfected his lock picking skills unlocking the advanced locks of Robotnik's fortresses.

After a few ginger movements, the lock had finally released its hold on the door with a quiet click and Sonic opened the door and made his way into the hall. He looked around and was quite impressed with his first glimpse of the house. It was an older two-story house. He noticed how remarkably well Amy had kept the house clean. The walls were decorated with a light, almost olive colored wallpaper at the top and the rest was wood paneling. There were also several tables holding small knick-knacks along the hall. As he rolled out of the door, Sonic accidentally bumped into one of the tables, knocking a small penguin off. His reflexes were still sharp even in his battered state and he caught it just before it hit the floor.

"Oh shit!" He exclaimed. "That was close. If Amy seen this, she'd probably kill me." Sonic said. He placed the penguin gingerly back on the table, and continued down the hallway. He came across the living room and headed right for the front door, clutching his 'key' and the scent of freedom in the air. As he got to the door, his heart sank. The door didn't have a lock like the one on his door, but a double-sided lock that required a key for both sides. "Fuck." Sonic uttered.

Then he had a stroke of genius. _The phone! Call the police. _Sonic thought to himself. He looked around the room and spotted it sitting by the couch. "Bout time something goes right." Sonic said, his luck finally turning around. He made his way over to the phone which was one of those old rotary phones with the wheel that had holes cut out of it you'd stick your finger into and spin. He picked up the receiver and dialed his house. He was so exited at the possibility of escaping he didn't even notice there was no dial tone. "What the..." He tapped the small pegs to try to get a dial tone. Nothing.

He picked up the entire phone to check if the line was still connected and noticed that the phone weighed much less that it should. He turned the phone upside down and couldn't believe what he saw. The 'guts' of the phone had been removed.

He sat the phone back on the table, dejected that he couldn't reach anyone in the outside world and continued exploring his prison. He made his way out of the living room and looked at the stairs leading up to the second floor. "Maybe if I could get up there..." He thought out loud, but quickly dismissed the idea. Even if he did, he'd just be trapped. He rolled past the stairs and came upon a closet. He opened the door and looked inside. Inside was an abundance of medical supplies. Bandages, gauze, syringes, vials of various liquid.

The closet resembled a small hospital more than a closet and he was about to close the door when something had caught his eye, a box containing several blister packs of Phenotol. The wheels of his mind began to turn and he grabbed several of them and since his pants had no pockets, he stuffed them into the front waistband of his sweats. It was a little uncomfortable, but he'd live until he got them back to the safety of his room. Satisfied he had enough, he made sure to leave everything as he left in and shut the door. After his trip to the pharmacy, he made his way over toward the kitchen. When he tried to enter through the door, the chair was wider than the doorframe.

"Damn." he said to himself. It was a long shot, but this was his last chance to escape and he was going to take it, consequences be damned. He rolled a little ways away from the doorway enough to where he could unlock the pedals of the chair and let the left one swing out, and pulled his left leg onto the right one. Locking the brakes and moving slowly to the edge of his seat, he grabbed both pants legs and lifted them up off the pedal and lowered them slowly toward the ground.

"AHHH!" Sonic yelled in pain as his grip loosened and his legs dropped like a stone, hitting the hardwood floors with a thud. "Fuuuuck..." He groaned through gritted teeth. The pain was excruciating but it would be worth it if he could get outside and to the road. After waiting for the pain to subside, he lowered himself to the floor, yet another difficult task in his condition and slowly began crawling towards the door. The muscles in his arms were much weaker than he expected, compounded with the fact he was still having an incredibly long recovery from his broken arm and dislocated shoulder. He crawled slowly but steadily until he reached his final hope for salvation, the pain surging through his legs and arms. But after two minutes of crawling with one arm, he reached the back door, pulled himself up to a sitting position and rested against it. The sweat was dripping off his brow and he wiped it away.

"I did it." he said with a smile and took his 'key' from his mouth. He turned just slighty so he could see and when he saw the door up close, his heart sank. He hadn't noticed from his chair, but the door had the key type lock like the one in his room, and above that, a two way deadbolt like the front door and a chain that was well out of his reach. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck- ow!" Sonic yelled in anger, hitting his head on the door. He rubbed the back of his cranium and, while he was still trapped in the house, he did manage to get out of a locked room with a bobby pin which was cause for celebration.

Busters Patrol car:

Buster, the sheriff of Silver Springs for the last 20 years and who had been married to his wife Virginia for the last 40 years, was out on his daily patrol with her who also served as Deputy. These usually meant driving around aimlessly in the surrounding area and watching the scenery. And as usual, she became bored and reached over to the passenger seat and started rubbing Buster's leg to get some kind of reaction out of him. "Virginia," he said, removing her hand from his leg. "I've told you when were out here, you're not my wife you're my deputy." He said.

"Just trying to spice up our life a little." She said with a sly smile and turned her focus back on the road.

It couldn't be helped. These drives were so uneventful and there were times he even felt like having her pull the car over for an impromptu 'make out' session like they used to have when they were teenagers. He flashed her a grin to show his appreciation and when he turned his head to his side of the truck, he spotted something on the side of the road that caught his attention. "Stop." He said. "STOP!" He yelled. Virginia quickly pulled over to the side of the road and he hopped out of the truck, followed by her. "Virginia, this look off to you in any way?" He asked his wife/Deputy.

"No." She replied as she got close enough to inspect it. "It's just a broken branch. Snow could've broken it, or some animal could've done it; bear maybe." She said, trying to offer a reasonable explanation.

He peered down the slope, seeing something that caught his attention. "I'm gonna go take a look down there. Wait here for me." Buster said, making his way down the embankment. He made his way down about halfway before stepping off into a small hole and falling flat on his face.

Virginia, watching the whole thing unfold from the road, continued to try to get a reaction out of her husband. "Need some help?" She called to him.

"No I'm enjoying myself! Thank you!" Buster said, aggravated.

Buster looked around, but after a minute realized it must've been his eyes playing tricks on him. "Ehh." He grumbled and began to make his way back up the embankment and they both began to walk back to their patrol truck.

As they climbed in, they gave a friendly wave to a passing car. Amy waived back at them and pressed down on the gas a little harder.

Amy's house:

After savoring his successful escape attempt, Sonic heard Amy's truck pull into the driveway. "Oh fuck! Oh FUCK!" Sonic yelled as he scrambled to get back into his chair. His adrenaline was pumping and he easily pulled himself back into his chair and backed away from the kitchen door and shut it. Meanwhile, Amy had gotten out of her truck and began walking up to the steps leading to the front door. She had the reams of paper in her arms and didn't see a rock lying in the yard, causing her to stumble and drop one of the reams of paper on the first step, giving Sonic a few extra seconds to get back into his room.

Sonic reached his room and shut the door. Retrieving his key, he stuck it in the lock and managed to lock the door in a fraction of a second. "Sonic," Amy called out as she walked through the front door. "I got the paper you asked for. I hope it's enough." She said. As he heard her footsteps draw closer to the door, he noticed that a couple of the blister packs of pills had wiggled free and he clasped a hand down on them to cover them up just as she opened the door.

"Three reams of long grain memeo... Sonic." Amy said as she set the paper down on the card table, a worried look on her face. "You're dripping with perspiration. You're color is very hectic, what have you been doing?" Amy asked him.

"You know damn well what I've been doing." he said, his face contorted in pain which wasn't much of a stretch at this point. "I've been sitting here suffering. I need my pills." Sonic said, sweat pouring down his face, heart racing.

"You poor dear." she said, her tongue clicking. "Let's get you back into bed and I'll get you your pills." Amy said as she approached the chair to move him closer to the bed.

"I want my pills now!" he pleaded, tears welling in his eyes. "Make the pain... go away Amy. Please... make it go away." Sonic pleaded.

Amy looked upon him with pity. "It just breaks my heart to see you like this." She said, as she left to get Sonic a couple of capsules. When Amy was out of sight, he quickly covered the blister packs of pills he'd 'borrowed' out of the closet. _If this were a movie, I'd get an award. _Sonic thought. Amy returned with the pills and a glass of water. Sonic placed them in his mouth but did not swallow them. Instead, he held them under his tongue and took a swallow of water. If his plan was going to work, he'd need as many as he could get his hands on. Amy took the glass of water from him and placed it on the table behind her. "Let's get this over with." She said. She placed Sonic on the side of the bed and removed the armrest from the chair. Lifting him from the chair and onto the bed in one easy motion like he weighed nothing. When she bent down to place his legs on the bed, he gritted his teeth.

"Wait Amy." Sonic said, knowing what was about to happen. "Oh, you're such a wimp." She retorted as she grabbed his legs and lifted them up onto the bed. The burst of pain was short and when it was all over, she grabbed something off the table and gave it to Sonic. "Here. It's a writing tablet. In case you come up with any ideas while you're writing the book. Just think of me for inspiration." She said.

"I don't know, I've never really been good at using the stuff I write down." Sonic said.

"Don't worry, You'll be brilliant. Just think of me for inspiration. Amy said with a smile.

_Yeah. You're perfect fucking inspiration. _"I'll bring you some lunch in a minute." Amy said, leaving the room; when she came back, she set a tray in front of him with a simple plate of rice and vegetables. The pills he saw in the closet were the first spark, but he really didn't have much plan for them other than to stockpile them for his own personal use, like if she left him alone overnight again. But, now he had to come up with something to do with them. This was yet another golden opportunity he couldn't let slip away, regardless the chances of success.

_Maybe I could... no._ he thought as he doodled on the pad she'd given him. _That might... no._ In a few minutes, he filled up the top sheet of the tablet and tore it off, tossing it into a wastebasket underneath the card table. He picked the pen up again and suddenly, it hit him. "That's it!" he exclaimed, quickly clasping a hand over his mouth. _Stupid._ The sound of a TV could be heard coming through the walls, which meant she wasn't going to be coming in for the next two hours at least, giving him plenty of time to start the first phase.

He tore a sheet of paper off the tablet Amy had given him and folded it into a small pocket. He then grabbed the blister packs of pills he had and took the capsules out of the package, lying them in a small pile on the tray. He counted about 20 pills all together and began the tedious task of pulling them apart to get to the powder inside.

When he emptied the capsules, he gathered the powder into the paper sleeve and sealed it up, the next task was to find a hiding place to stash it until he needed it. He ran a hand along the side of the mattress, but realized that would be pointless since she changed his sheets every couple of days. But, when he pulled his hand up, on the left side of the mattress, he found a small hole in the fabric just big enough to slip something inside.

_Perfect._ he thought. He took his fork and stabbed it into the mattress, enlarging the hole, then he grabbed the empty capsules and shoved them inside the hole far enough to make sure she wouldn't find them when she changed the sheets. Next he placed the paper sleeve into the hole, making sure he could grab it when it was needed, yet still hidden well enough from her; now it was time for phase two. He called Amy into his room. "What is it Sonic?" She asked in a cheery voice.

"Would you like to have dinner with me tonight? You know, to celebrate me starting the new novel?" Sonic asked, hoping she would take the bait.

"Of course I would! I'd be a fool not to pass up dinner with the world's greatest hero and best selling author. Oooh, I've gotta get my best clothes on, OH, I'll put on my classical records! They can inspire you!" She said, leaving the room. "You do like classical, right?" she asked, popping her head back through the door. He shrugged. "Who doesn't?"

She smiled and left again and Sonic leaned back against the pillow, hammering out the final details.


	5. Chapter 5: Hobbling

Chapter 5: Hobbling

It was around 5:00 that evening when Amy walked into Sonic's room, wearing a lovely black evening dress. "Dinner is ready." She said cheerfully. "Ok. Just give me a second." Sonic said.

"Don't take too long. Your dinner will get cold." Amy said. When Amy was out of sight, Sonic reached into the hole in the side of the mattress and retrieved the sleeve containing the powder he had saved from the Phenotol which he gingerly stuck into the front of his pants; Sonic called out to Amy. Amy entered the room a minute later. "Ready?" She asked the blue hedgehog. Amy lifted him into the chair and wheeled him out the door.

Sonic forced himself to make small talk even though his mind was racing with thoughts about leaving his own personal hell. "Wow Amy, you have a beautiful house." Sonic said, lying to Amy. Looking at the same ugly olive green wallpaper everyday made him almost want to throw up. "Well thank you Sonic." Amy said, finally reaching the table. "I'll be right back." Amy said heading to the kitchen. His plan was to try to get her to unknowingly take the power, causing her to pass out long enough so he could make his escape.

She returned carrying a bottle of wine in a bucket of ice and two glasses, setting them on the table and pouring enough for the both of them. Now it was time to put everything into motion. "Amy," he said, folding his arms on the table. "you wouldn't happen to have any candles would you?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know." she said, a strange look on her face. "There might be some in the kitchen. Let me check." She said, walking away to look for the requested item. This was his chance. He withdrew the sleeve of powder from his pants and poured the entire contents into the glass of wine Amy had poured for herself. "Found some!" Amy said. _Shit!_ Sonic swirled the glass around quickly to dissolve the powder into the liquid and sat the glass down just before Amy returned with the candles; he prayed she didn't notice the wine gently sloshing around inside the glass. "I hope these are ok. They're just emergency candles I keep around when the power goes out." Amy said, placing the candles in the center of the table and lighting them.

"It's perfect." Sonic said with a smile on his face, knowing he would soon be free. Sonic grabbed his glass of wine and raised it. "A toast... to Misery's return." Sonic announced. Amy reached for her glass but just as she did, she knocked over one of the candles and in the process, knocked over her glass of wine. Sonic watched the wine spill onto the table along his hopes of escape vanishing.

"Oh Sonic!" Amy gasped. "I-I ruined your toast. I'm so sorry." she pleaded, blotting up the spilled wine with a paper towel. "Can you forgive me?" Amy said. Sonic nodded his head and gave her a small "Yes." as his means of escape soaked into the white tablecloth all while suppressing the urge to scream. Amy poured herself another glass of wine and held it up. "To Misery!" she yelped, a smile on her face. "To Misery." Sonic said, raising his glass.

Sonic's house:

Sally had began to worry that something had happened to Sonic, which had begun to trigger bouts of depression. Luckily, Tails had been staying with her ever since Sonic last called, which was a huge help. But he was starting to worry about her. It had reached the point where she was losing sleep at night, waking up off and on calling out for Sonic. She had not been eating either and she even wanted to go out looking for him herself, something that Tails had to talk her out of more than a few times, even though it went against every fiber of his being. He thought about it himself, but the mountains were treacherous that time of year. Massive snowfalls would make it almost impossible to search by sight or scent. All her and Tails could do was make passes over the mountain range in the Tornado, same as the authorities, so, they both begrudgingly left it to the local authorities. Besides, they were better equipped to working in those kinds of conditions.

It came to a point that Tails had been forced to make Sally eat, but she would only eat enough to make it through a day. When Sally had first discovered Sonic was missing, Sally called Knuckles and Shadow to see if they could locate him, but they had to turn her down as well.

Tails had been keeping an eye on Sally and now that she had fallen asleep, he could finally take a break. He turned on the TV. Flipping through the channels and finding nothing worthwhile, he decided to watch a movie. He got off the couch and made his way over to the DVD player. But before he selected a movie, something on TV caught his attention. It was a news conference. Someone had found Sonic's car! Tails debated whether or not to wake up Sally. He decided against it, deciding to let her sleep, something she needed. _I'll tell her when she wakes up._

At the conference

There was about two dozen reporters clustered around a podium. "Have you recovered a body?" A reporter asked the man standing behind the microphone.

"Not at this time." He said. "Since we found no body in the car, we believe that Sonic managed to make his way out and into..." Buster and Virginia ignored him and raced to the site where Sonic's car had been pulled out of the snow. He walked over to it and began to inspect it and on the drivers side, noticed nothing out of the ordinary. "Virginia, does this look odd to you?" He said to his wife. On the door, right where the door meets the frame were several small dents.

"If he did get out, the best bet is he's buried somewhere under the snow." the spokesman said.

Buster shook his head. "Look at the roof." he said, running a hand across the crushed and dented metal. "There's no way anyone was going to open it from the inside. The roof's too damaged for it to open from the inside... or outside for that matter." he said, moving his hand down to the door handle. "Look at this." He said, pointing to several dents in the frame. There were scratches in the paint where something had scratched the paint and dug into the car's frame.

"You think someone pulled him out?" Virginia asked.

"Bingo. There's no way he'd be able to get out from a wreck like this without help." he replied.

The next day

Staring at a typewriter wasn't exactly his idea of being productive. But in this case, if it at least made it look like he was working or coming up with ideas, he figured Amy wouldn't fly off the handle or something like that. But, he knew he really had no choice so he decided to bite the bullet and at least try do something his way for once. He pulled a piece of fresh paper from one of the reams and rolled it onto the typewriter's roller. Placing his hands on the keys, he typed the first thought that came to his head.

fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

Sonic pulled the paper from the roller, quickly crumpled it up and threw it in the small wastebasket on the floor.

He started at the blank page for a few minutes, then his 'creative juices' began to flow and he was off typing out Amy's own personal 'Misery' novel; before he knew it, he'd already been typing for three hours. _Damn, I've already done two chapters. Better slow it down._ If he worked at his normal pace, it wouldn't be long until he was finished, which wasn't a good thing. As he stopped to take a break, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was Amy. It was strange to see Amy doing work outside of the house since the only time he had ever seen her go outside was when she had one of her breakdowns or to venture into town. Their eyes met and she shot him a smile and a wave. "Hey Sonic!" she yelled. He just looked at her and flipped her off. It was a knee-jerk reaction and he regretted it the second it happened. To his surprise, she just laughed at him and waived it off; "You kidder!" she said jokingly. _That's gonna come back to bite me._ he thought as he turned his attention back to his work.

Later on

Sonic took the page out of the typewriter and laid it off to the side, on top of an already completed stack of pages. "Amy." he called out to her. Hearing his voice, Amy practically jumped out of her chair and came flying into the room. "Yes?" She asked with a smile and the giddiness of a schoolgirl.

"I have two chapters done already and I thought you'd want to take a look at them and fill in the missing n's." Sonic said. It wasn't something that they'd discussed beforehand; in fact, he had just come up with the idea a few minutes before he called out to her. He knew she'd say yes, jumping at the chance to read it as soon as he finished a part of it instead of waiting for the final product. Besides, if he finished it and it wasn't to her standards, she'd just make him burn it and start all over again. Amy took the pages out of Sonic's hand and tucked them under her arm. "I'll take a look at them, but I'm sure they're perfect coming from that brilliant mind." Amy said.

When she came back a short twenty minutes later, she laid the papers on the table and had, what Sonic could only describe as a 'disappointedly bland' look on her face and he braced himself. "This is wrong." Amy said flatly.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"It's just wrong. The execution, the pacing... It's just not... you." Amy told him.

"Alright." Sonic said, not even bothering to ask her to go into details. He knew when not to poke the bear.

He sat for a minute, steaming about the fact she had blown off the work he'd put into it for her. But, after re-reading over what he had done, he realized, she was _right._ He might've been doing this for someone who was five cans short of a six pack, but she was right. It was sloppy and thrown together quickly, definitely falling below his standards. He skimmed over his work and took out what bits worked and began incorporating them into a newly reworked version. _If I don't get this right,_ he thought as his fingers moved along the keys at a steady pace, _no telling what she's liable to do to me._

The one problem he was having was finding a loophole to resurrect the story's main character Misery. In the last one, she had died during childbirth and he had to come up with a way of reviving her from that. He wrote for the next three hours, toying with various options and finally, came up with a solution to his problem. He finished the final page and set it on top of the others and called her into the room. She came in, grabbed the freshly typed manuscript like an eagle grabbing a fish out of the river, thanked him and took it off to review it. She came back an hour later and set it down on the table.

"Well, what do you think?" Sonic asked, hoping he had lived up to her standards. What worried him the most was that he could never get read on her.

"Sonic," She began, "It's perfect! I didn't see it coming! I love how you worked out that she didn't die during childbirth, but she just slipped into that... coma because of the stress it had put on her body Ian and Winthorpe had no idea she was still alive because Dr. Edwards couldn't get there since his horse had tripped and broke it's leg on the way to the birth, leaving them without a Doctor to examine her and prove she was still alive, so they just sent her off to the undertaker's for services the next morning. Oh, you can't even imagine my happiness when Ian and Winthorpe realized what had happened and raced over to the cemetery to get Gravedigger Rose to exhume Misery's body, OOH, my spine was tingling!" She was speaking a mile a minute and when she finished, she was almost out of breath.

"So it's ok then?" Sonic asked.

"Of course it is." Amy replied, eyes wide with happiness. "And thank you for naming the gravedigger after me." Amy said.

"It's the least I could do." Sonic said.

Time passed on and Sonic kept writing and thanks to that, Amy's outbursts of anger were almost non-existent thanks to her being occupied with new chapters; except when he wrote a bad chapter and even then she just had him re-do it. But sitting in the chair so long every day was starting to take a toll on him. His legs stayed in an almost constant pain and now his back was starting to act up. He had been trying to cut back on his need for the painkillers, but he had began to rely on them more and more frequently, something he never wanted to do, but he had no choice.

Later that night, it had begun to rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. When Amy came in to give him his nightly medication, he saw a completely different Amy. Her look on her face was blank, eyes lifeless. Hair, usually well kempt and cared for, hanging over her face like she had just woken up. She was wearing a robe, but it wasn't tied up and when she stepped further into the light of the room, Sonic noticed the clothes she was wearing underneath were dirty and marked with various food stains, some old and some fresh.

She walked over to the table and reached into a pocket on her robe and tossed his pills half-heartedly at him. "Here's your pills." she said, her voice flat.

"What's wrong Amy?" Sonic asked.

Amy turned around, gave him a lifeless look, then shuffled over to the window just in front of the table he was sitting at and stared into the dark of the night.

"It's the rain. It depresses me so." Her voice seemed sad, almost child-like. "It doesn't help that you'll be leaving soon... You know," Amy let out a sigh, "I've lost too many people over the years. You'll never know what it's like to lose someone, if you're someone like me." Amy said.

"Why would you lose me?" Sonic asked, choosing his words carefully. For all he knew, she was about to snap and take them both out. _This is bad_. he thought as he watched her carefully. _Gotta keep her talking, try to get her to snap back to reality._

"Books almost finished," she shrugged; "you're legs're healing, and soon you'll want to leave. Just like the others." Amy said.

"Why would I leave?" he asked with a smile. "I like it here."

"That's very nice of you to say," she turned her gaze toward him; "but I'll bet it's not altogether true." Sonic watched as Amy reached into the pocket on the front of her robe and produced a small snub-nosed revolver; his heart rate shot up several points. "Sometimes I think about using this gun on myself and ending it all." Amy said as she put the gun up to her head and pulled the trigger. The click from the gun echoed through the room, but that was all, a click. No gunshot followed. She pulled the trigger again. Eventually cycling through the barrel twice. "I better go now. I might put bullets in it." She said, turning quickly towards the door. Sonic heard the familiar click of her key in the lock, then he saw her trudging through the mud as she climbed into her truck and headed off into the night. Once she was gone, his heart began to slow down.

Buster's house:

Buster and Virginia were both in bed. Virginia lay next to her husband knitting one of her blankets; he on the opposite side, reading one of the Misery novels.

"When did you become a fan of romance novels?" She asked her husband when she saw his choice of reading material.

"I'm trying to get some insight on Sonic. See what he wrote about; maybe get some insight on what kind of person he was." Buster said. Virginia shook her head and went back to her knitting. His long career in law enforcement had given him a sixth sense about these kinds of things. He had already burned through half of the book and was about to put it down for the night when something on the page caught his attention. It read: "There is a justice of that higher than man. I will be judged by Him."

His eyes turned toward the ceiling as something about that phrase triggered something in his mind that he just couldn't place. He reached over to the end table on the side of the bed and grabbed a slip of paper and a pen. Virginia watched her husband with curiosity. "What are you doing now?" She asked him impatiently.

"I'm not quite sure. Call it a gut feeling." he replied as he wrote it down.

Amy's house:

Once he was sure she wasn't going to be coming back for a while, Sonic grabbed his key from it's hiding place and went exploring. He figured he'd earned a little vacation out of his room as he made his way out into the hall and into the living room. This time though, he spotted something he hadn't noticed before, a red photo album with the words 'Memory Lane' written on the front in gold in a bookshelf. He picked it up and began to thumb through it. Sonic saw the usual things one keeps in a scrapbook, newspaper clippings, pictures of loved ones and whatnot. But there were more than a few that caught his attention, like a large newspaper clipping that read:

Family killed in house fire, child sole survivor.

Tuesday, February 18th. Early this morning just after 5:00 am, Station Square fire department responded to a house fire on Palm Avenue. Upon arriving, fire crews found the house completely engulfed in flames. After fighting the fire for 20 minutes, the fire had been completely extinguished, but the house was a complete loss with damages expected to be well over $14,000. Fire crews entered the home to discover the bodies of three hedgehogs inside, believing the family died due from smoke inhalation. The only survivor was the daughter, named Amy Rose aged 6, found on the home's front lawn when fire crews arrived on scene. CPS has taken the child into custody and is arranging for a foster family to take her in. Prelemenary reports suggest the fire may have been started by faulty wiring in the kitchen, but investigators are not ruling anything out until they have confirmation on the cause of the fire.

_No wonder she's so messed up. _Sonic thought. As he continued to flip through the scrapbook, he began to get a clear picture of who she really was. It was basically a showcase of her entire life, Amy making her way into nursing school, receiving high marks, graduating and finally, being named head nurse of the maternity wing. That's when things took a sharp turn. Under Amy's care of the maternity wing, six newborns had died over the course of several weeks, the consensus being the infants had died from SIDS. When an investigation was launched after the death of the sixth infant, it was found that all the newborns that had died under Amy's care had been given trace, yet lethal injections of Anatropaline, a cardiac drug.

Apparently, a high-ranking doctor or nurse could authorize Anatropaline. Since Amy was the highest-ranking nurse in the maternity ward, she was given access to the cabinet that contained the fatal vials of Anatropaline. Due to this information, Amy was arrested and taken to trial, being dubbed 'The Dragon Lady'. Amy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, her lawyer claiming that the fire she survived as a child had caused her psyche to become fragile and upon seeing the infants in the hospital, she cracked. While she was found guilty, Mobian law stated that any individual found to be mentally unstable to be 'placed into a mental facility and all attempts to cure said individual will be taken'.

Once Amy had been admitted and examined, it was found that her mental illness was easily controlled with medication that would actually keep her condition in check and allow her to live a normal life on the condition that she continued to take the medication perscribed by the head of the mental hospital. The parents of the murdered children demanded a mistrial and there were petitions circulated all over Mobius to keep her locked up, but the law was against them. She agreed and was released under the condition that she be monitored for five years to make sure she kept taking her medication and could live a normal life, which she happily agreed to. Amy kept to it, meeting with the Doctors and following up with the courts for the full five years and once they saw she was completely rehabbed, she was cut free from the system and allowed to live her life in private.

That was enough for Sonic to stomach without him wanting to throw up and he put the book back on the shelf and wheeled himself back into his room, locked the door and climbed into bed. Later that night, he heard the sound of her walking through the front door and watched the crack under the door as her shadow stopped in front of his door, but instead of coming in and apologizing like she always had, she simply walked away, not even giving him a second thought. "Fuck." Sonic said quietly as his blood ran cold.

Several hours later:

The storm outside had intensified over the last few hours. A loud crack of lightning woke Sonic up out of a dead sleep. In the flash of light, he saw Amy standing over him holding a syringe in her hand. "Shit!" he yelled in surprise and tried to protect himself, but the pink hedgehog was much quicker than he was. She grabbed the blue hedgehog's arm and inserted the needle in his skin, emptying it's contents into his system. Whatever she'd injected him with worked quickly and he felt himself getting drowsy, and before he passed out, he took a swing at her; he barely got his arm up off the bed, but no one could say he didn't at least try to fight back.

When he finally regained consciousness, it was daylight outside and Amy was standing at the foot of his bed. She looked like her happy, usual self, far removed from her depressed state last night. When Sonic tried to sit up, he realized his arms and legs had been tied down with rope. He struggled, trying to wiggle free, but every movement against the ropes caused his legs to sing in pain. "What's going on?" He demanded of her as his heart began to race. "Why can't I move?"

Amy smiled a devilish smile and moved closer toward the side of his bed. "Because I know you've been out of your room."

_Fuck! "No I haven't." he said calmly. "The only time I've been out of this room was when we had dinner together that night."_

"_Oh Sonic," she said with a laugh, "don't try to hide it. I first realized what you were doing the day after I gave you that wheelchair." She shook her head, clicking her tongue. "A miscalculation on my part. After I came back that day from getting the paper you needed, I noticed that one of the little penguin figurines on the table in the hall had been moved." She shrugged her shoulders and slowly paced back toward the door. "I didn't think too much about it at first, but when I took a closer look at it... I noticed it was facing a different direction. When I left, it was facing north, and when I came back, it was facing south. I always have the penguins facing North, Sonic. That way they know which way to go when they fly home. That's... how I know, Sonic."_

"_Amy, I'm sorry." Sonic said._

_She walked to the foot of his bed. "Have you ever heard the story of the Mystic Ruin mines, Sonic?" She asked. "Do you know what the owners did if they found one of the slaves trying to escape?" She asked. Sonic began frantically trying to escape his bindings, the pain in his legs screaming like never before, eyes wide with terror, heart racing and breathing rapid. She saw his little display of fear and let out a small laugh._

_*Hee Hee* "Don't worry, they didn't kill them, no. That would be like junking a new car because it had a busted spring- no. They wanted to make sure they learned their lesson, but also wanted to make sure they could still work. They called the process hobbling." Amy said, reaching down and grabbing a small 2x4 off the ground and placing it between Sonic's feet, just above his ankles. He let out a small whimper and after she made sure it was in place correctly, she went to the door and reached just outside. Sonic could only watch as she produced a large sledgehammer, which looked like it could bust through almost anything. Sonic felt tears roll down his eyes as Amy turned around, the sledge resting on top of her shoulder as she walked back to the foot of his bed. But through all this, he forced himself to remain calm and tried to talk her out of whatever she was about to do._

"_Amy," he said calmly, "whatever it is you're thinking of doing, please don't do it." Sonic pleaded, his voice calm and collected even though he was screaming on the inside._

"_Shh darling, it's for the best." Amy said, lifting the sledge over her shoulder with ease._

"_AMY PLEASE!" Sonic screamed._

_She ignored his pleas and brought the sledge down against Sonic's left foot, a loud 'crack' echoing through the room. The sledge instantly broke every bone in his ankle and caused it to bend 90 degrees to the right. His vision went white for a split second and he saw an explosion of stars as soon as the sledge came into contact with his ankle and he screamed, but the pain was so intense, no sound came out of his mouth. "NNNNNGGGHHHH!" he groaned through clenched teeth, his hands gripping the sheets and twisting them in agony, his body shaking from the sheer amount of pain coursing through him._

"_Almost done." she said sweetly. "Just one more to go." Amy said as she moved to his right side. She lifted the sledge again and brought it down on his right ankle, breaking it in the same fashion as the left. "AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHNNNNNNG GHHHH!" he screamed, his body jerking off the bed. Tears streamed down his face_

"_God I love you." She said, her face in a blank, yet orgasmic ecstasy before Sonic blacked out._


	6. Chapter 6: False Hope

Chapter 6 False Hope

When Sonic finally regain consciousness, he felt like he was in hell. His ankles felt like they were on fire and they were throbbing, along with his legs which now were a secondary, yet constant source of pain. He hoped she did him the courtesy of leaving him a few painkillers, and down at the foot of his bed, right between his swollen, bruised ankles, he spotted two solitary pills. "Fuck." he said. Being down so far meant he'd have to move, which meant even more pain; a plus side to everything was she'd at least taken the ropes off the bed.

He took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but any movement, _any_ whatsoever caused a sharp pain to run up his legs. "Nngh!" he yelled as he fell back to the bed. "Gotta do it." he said to himself. "It's only gonna get worse." He gritted his teeth and with all his strength, pulled himself to a sitting position. "AAAAAAHHHH!" He yelled as he slowly rose off the bed and when he was sitting up enough, he grabbed the small caplets and fell back down on the bed, hitting his head on the wall in the process. "Aah, shit!" he yelped as the pain shot through him, but he didn't care. He had his pills and that was all that mattered at the moment. There was no water so he popped them in his mouth and swallowed them dry.

After waiting for the medicine in the pills to start working, he finally managed to fall asleep, but it didn't come easy. He woke up almost every hour in pain. Regardless of how many pain pills he took, they weren't going to do much good against two freshly broken ankles. That would require morphine, which he had almost as much chance of getting as people in Hell getting ice water. He cursed the fact he hadn't saved some of the pills he had stashed in the mattress when he tried to drug Amy, or had began building a backup stash for emergencies like this. He looked outside and, no surprise, it was dark. He had no idea what time it was since his room didn't have a clock, but he guessed it to be around 10:00 pm.

"Amy?" Sonic called out to her. It was against his better judgment, but he did; nothing. "Amy?" Sonic called out to her again; still nothing. _She must still be in one of her fucked up moods._ Sonic thought.

"Amy?" Sonic called out the next morning after he'd woken up. No response. On top of everything else that had been thrown his way, he was starting to feel hungry. His stomach rumbled loudly, demanding food. He thought about getting in the chair and start on the last few chapters of the novel, but every time he moved his legs, his ankles screamed in pain. Realizing he had no choice, he just lay in bed and watched the door, waiting for Amy to come in. There wasn't a sound of anyone in the house all day.

Two days had passed since Amy had 'hobbled' him. The pain in his ankles was severe, sometimes reaching the point where he just broke down crying and screaming in pain. Amy still hadn't come back and Sonic began to worry that she might not come back at all, leaving him to wither away and die. His hunger and thirst was at a level he had never experienced before and he was starting to become dehydrated.

That third day passed slowly and when Sonic awoke on the forth day to find she _still_ had not come back home yet, his hunger had grown to it's peak. His pain had eased considerably by now, reduced to a dull, numb roar. Sonic was able to move his legs only a little before pain forced him to stop, but at least he could move them. His thirst was immense, his mouth almost constantly dry. He didn't know how long she was going to be gone or if she was coming back at all and his thirst had reached it's crescendo. He needed water and he needed it _now_. He could live a little while longer without food, but water was essential.

He couldn't get out of bed to get water and he was left with only one option. He had no choice but to drink his own urine. It was sick and the thought almost made him vomit, but if he wanted to survive, he had to do it.

He threw the blankets down just above his groin, and through the pain, managed to get his pants halfway down. He reached over and pulled the blankets up to his groin, laying an edge just under his testicles to make a crude filter and laid his penis over the blankets. Cupping his hands underneath the blanket as best he could, and began to urinate into the blanket. It burned as he released what little fluid he had left in him, which signaled a urinary tract infection. His urine also had a dark color to it and had a terribly strong odor to it, which he accounted to the fact he hadn't had any water for the past couple of days.

He only had about a teaspoon in his hand, but it was something to drink. He lifted his hand to his lips, closed his eyes and tipped the liquid into his mouth. Sonic had to fight his gag reflex as well as the urge to spit it out, but he managed to swallow. When he finished, he leaned back against his pillow and wept.

The Sheriffs Station:

7:00 A.M. marked the start of the work day for Buster. Setting his cup of coffee on his desk, he began rifling through a filing cabinet, scouring the many files. Suddenly, he heard the screeching of brakes outside and he ran out the door to find two cars stopped in the middle of the road. He didn't go over to either driver since there had been no collision between the two. The driver of one of the cars stuck his head out of the window. "Watch where you're going you crazy bitch!" he yelled at the driver of the other car.

The driver of the other car stuck her head out the window. "You cock-a-doodie!" The woman yelled back; it was Amy. She pulled away and drove to the store right next to the Sheriffs station. It being a small town, most of the major businesses were on one street, along with the Sheriffs station. Amy pulled into a parking space in front of the store and got out of her truck, just as the driver of the other car she almost hit passed by. He honked his horn at her as he drove by. "You poop!" She yelled as she flipped him off. Buster watched as she went into the store, laughing slightly at the whole thing. Amy came out a few minutes later, carrying two bags, setting them in the back of her truck. She seen Buster standing there and waived to him.

Buster tipped the front of his hat toward her as he did for everyone and walked back inside the station and continued searching through the file cabinet.

Amy's house:

Sonic sat in the bed, laughing loudly, talking to himself. "You think she'll come back?" He asked himself.

"The way she is? Nah! She's not coming back." He told himself. At that moment, he heard the sound of tires crunching snow and gravel and when he looked out the window, he saw Amy's truck pull into the driveway. Seeing her truck snapped him back to reality and he felt an intense anger wash over him. When she came into the house, she headed straight for his room.

"Hi Sonic." She said.

His rage had reached a point where he just couldn't hold back, and he let her have it, consequences be damned. "Where the fuck have you been!? Do you have _any IDEA_ what I've been through since you left!? NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO GODDAMN PAINKILLERS! You know the agony I've been in?" He hissed. He didn't care what she did to him for yelling like he did, he wanted to get things off his chest and he was going to let her have it. "The pain I've suffered? I had to drink my own piss, just to get some water! So I think I deserve some kind of _fucking_ explanation on where you've been." Sonic yelled, flecks of spit flying out of his mouth.

"You're right, I'm sorry." she said. Her tone of voice was sincere, and she had a look of regret on her face. Sonic could tell it wasn't BS as usual, but that didn't mean she was forgiven by any means. "I didn't want to come back until I completely calmed down. If I came back and I was still mad, I would have done something that I would have regretted. That's why I've been away at my 'screaming place'."

"What the _fuck_ is a 'screaming place?" Sonic demanded.

"Do you remember that cabin I told you about a while back, Sonic?" Amy asked him.

"No." Sonic said.

"Well I call it my 'screaming place'. When I go up there, I can do anything I want. Sometimes I scream at the top of my lungs until I pass out. Or I might just sit and wait until whatever is bothering me goes away and once it passes, I come straight home." Amy explained to him.

The urge to choke her was overwhelming. "So now that you're back, can I get some water?" he demanded.

"Of course! Where are my manners?" Amy said as she got up. "I'll get you something to eat while I'm at it too. God knows you must be starving!" She said as she left to retrieve what she wanted.

Amy returned a few minutes later with a glass of water. Sonic grabbed it and took a big drink.

"Don't drink too much! It'll make you sick if you drink the whole thing now. Your body hasn't had water for a few days. You want to take it slow." Amy told him.

He took two large swallows and his stomach lurched as the liquid hit_._ He coughed and Amy took the glass away, setting it beside him on the table. "Now I'll get you something to eat. Would you like to do some more work on the novel while you eat?" She asked him.

"Not..." Sonic began. He wasn't in any mood to write anything at the moment, but at the very least it might take his mind off of what had happened over the last few days. "Can't hurt." Sonic said.

"Well then, let's get you in the chair." Amy said, moving around to help him out of bed, tossing the blankets back. She had him in his chair in a minute and wheeled him over to the table.

"Now I'll get you something to eat." She said.

She came back about 20 minutes later with a complete meatloaf dinner. She sat it down in front of Sonic and he tore into it quickly, a mistake on his part. He ate too fast and he filled up quickly, but he hadn't eaten in four days and he was going to make sure his belly was full. "Was it good?" Amy asked him.

"That was the best meal you've ever made for me. Thanks Amy." Sonic replied. The anger he'd felt earlier subdued now that he had some food and water in his system.

"Glad you liked it." Amy said as Sonic started writing,

Sheriff's station:

After looking through nearly every file in the cabinet, Buster finally found what he was looking for. There was something about what he'd read in that book that he couldn't shake off and he grabbed the file out of the drawer and walked back to his desk and cracked it open. It was a file from a case that had happened about eight years ago. Dubbed the 'Dragon Lady' case, it involved Amy Rose, the head nurse for the hospital at the time of the murders, accused of killing newborn infants. On one of the pages was a quote taken from the accused along with a photo. It read: "There is a justice higher than that of man. I will be judged by him."

His hunch had paid off. _There it is._ he thought and looked at the photo and read the name. 'Amy Rose' Occupation: Head nurse.

He knew her well. He had gotten several complaints from her neighbors over the years about Amy screaming at the top of her lungs. He had driven out to her house many times and after the hundredth call, he stopped responding to them altogether, citing that since she was in her own house and it wasn't after dark, there wasn't much he could do. Buster got up from his chair and walked out the door and over to the store next door where Amy had gone into earlier that morning.

"Morning Pete." Buster said to the man behind the counter as he walked over to the refrigerator case and grabbed a soda.

"Ah, morning Buster." Pete replied. "What can I do for ya?" He asked.

"Oh, just hoping you could answer a couple of questions for me." Buster said, walking back to the register and paying for the soda in his possession.

"Shoot." Pete said.

"That woman that came in here this morning, pink hair... you ever noticed anything... strange when she comes in here?" Buster asked.

"Miss Rose? Not that I've noticed." Pete said. "She does love those Misery books though. She keeps asking me when the next one's coming out and when it does, she comes in and buys the first copy."

"She bought anything odd lately?" Buster asked taking a drink of his soda.

"Nope. Unless you count paper odd." Pete said.

"The writing kind?" Buster asked.

"Nope. Typing kind." Pete replied, making typing motions with his hands.

Buster nodded and turned to walk out of the store when Pete spoke up. "Miss Rose done something wrong?"

"Not a thing." Buster replied as the door shut.

Amy's house:

Sonic had been writing for the last few hours and it was a welcome distraction from her. "Amy, what time is it?" He asked. "4:00." she replied.

"Thanks." Sonic said. He and decided to take a small break. He looked out the window as he always did to give his eyes a rest from the white paper and noticed someone coming up the driveway. Before Sonic realized what was happening, he heard the sound of footsteps running toward his room. Amy barged into the room brandishing a needle. She lunged at him and aimed for his arm with the needle and Sonic, having regained some of his strength, managed to hold her at bay for a good six seconds, but she was stronger than he was and Amy plunged the needle into his arm and pressed down on the plunger. Now that she'd injected him, she released her grip on him. Sonic still tried to get a piece of her and tried to make a desperate grab at her throat as whatever she'd pumped into him rapidly made it's way through his system. But to his surprise, he didn't black out. He became drowsy and lethargic; he tried to move, but he could barely move his arms and when he tried to speak, the only sound that came out of his mouth was a quiet groan. She'd simply drugged him instead of completely knocking him out, a new tactic on her part.

Now that the blue hedgehog was drugged, she quickly tossed the syringe in one corner of the room and hastily went around to the back of his chair, wheeling him toward the door. "I don't know why you continue to fight me. I would think you'd want my help by now, but I guess you'll never learn." she scolded the hedgehog as she hastily pushed him out of the room and down the hall.

Sonic moaned quietly and watched through half-opened eyes as she stopped by the door leading down to the basement. Amy picked Sonic up out of the chair and carried him down the steps, laying him on the floor on an old mattress. She walked back up the stairs, shut the door and folded up the wheelchair leaning it against the wall.

Buster climbed out of his truck and began to walk up to the house. Just as he got up the steps and knocked on the door, Amy opened it.

"Ooh!" Amy yelped, pretending to be startled.

"Sorry about that." he said with an uneasy chuckle. "My name's Buster, I'm the sheriff for Silver Springs. I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me." Buster said to her. He really didn't have any questions for her, but something about her and that quote that he couldn't shake, even though he knew it really didn't hold water. The only connection between them was that she was a fan of Sonic's books. But, the crash site where they'd found his car was just a ten minute drive from her house and they hadn't found a body. It was a stretch, but no one had any leads in the case and he figured it wouldn't hurt to at least poke around.

"Well if I can." Amy said with a smile. "What's the problem?"

"Well ma'am, I'm looking into the disappearance of Sonic the hedgehog ?" Buster asked.

"Oh, I heard about that on the news." she said, putting forth her 'sad' face. "Him being a hero to everyone and writing those lovely Misery novels. Almost made me break down into tears when I first heard about it." She turned away from him and let out a sigh. "Listen to me prattle on and on, would you like to come in?" She asked Buster.

"If it's ok with you." Buster said to her as he walked in. He stepped in the house and welcomed the warm air. "We got a report that he was staying up here at the Silver Creek lodge. You haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, have you?" he asked.

Amy shook her head. "No. Unless you count rain odd. Haven't had a winter rain storm up this high in years." She said.

Amy walked into the living room, Buster following close behind. "When I first heard about the accident, I couldn't believe it had happened." She stopped by a desk, holding her collection of Sonic's Misery novels, a framed picture of him with a black ribbon draped over it which she straightened it up. "I dropped to my knees and prayed. Well, afterward, I thought I'd try my hand at writing; kind of a tribute to him, if you will. I guess you could call it a tribute to him. I even set up a writing studio in the guest bedroom. Would you like to see it?" She asked Buster.

"Sure." Buster replied.

Amy led him into Sonic's room. "This is where I've been writing. I know all his books and what he wrote about, but I just can't do it like he did."

"Well you just have to keep trying." Buster said with a smile.

"Look at me." a embarrassed smile on her face. "I haven't even offered you anything to drink. Would you like a cup of hot cocoa?" Amy asked him.

"Well-" Buster began when he was cutoff by Amy.

"It's no trouble. I'll be right back with it." she said, her words trailing off as she walked into the kitchen.

As Sonic lay on the mattress in the basement, the anesthetic started to wear off. "Mmmmm." He moaned as the stuff began to wear off. "C'mon..." He muttered as he slowly began to regain the use of the fingers on his left hand.

Upstairs:

Buster waited in the guest bedroom for her to return, his back to the door. _Maybe I'm looking into this a little too hard._ he thought as he looked at the typewriter on the table. He had no evidence what-so-ever against her and what he did wouldn't fly as evidence in traffic court. The only 'evidence' he did have was a quote she'd said to a handful of reporters years ago. _I'm getting too old for this. Maybe Virginia's right. Maybe it's time for me to-_

"Here's your cocoa." Amy said as she walked back into the room, startling him.

"Oh, je-" Buster blurted out. He took the cup but set it down on the table. "Thank you ma'am, but I better go. I've taken up enough of your time." Buster said.

"But you haven't even touched your cocoa." Amy protested.

"I'm sure it's delicious." he said with a friendly smile and headed for the front door. "But I'd better be getting back to the station."

"I hope you come back up here now that you know the way." Amy said, shutting the door.

Meanwhile in the basement, the anesthetic began to wear off even further and Sonic started looking for something he could use to pull himself up into a sitting position. Just off to his left, he saw the outdoor grill she'd made him burn his untitled manuscript in. His limbs were still slightly numb and when he reached for it, he knocked an aluminum tray loose and it crashed to the floor with a loud bang.

Buster was almost to his truck when he heard a loud crash come from the house. He turned around to listen, but didn't hear anything. "Hello? Miss Rose?" He called out. "Miss Rose?" He called again. Not hearing a response, he quickly walked back up on the porch, opened the door and made his way inside. He walked down the hall and called to Amy again. "Miss Rose?" Sonic heard Buster calling for Amy and took the chance. "HERE! IT'S ME SONIC! I'M DOWN HERE!" he yelled. Buster heard the yelling and walked to the stairs, further into the house. "HERE! DOWN HERE!" the voice yelled again.

_The basement. he thought as he stopped just past the stairs and saw the door leading down to the basement and opened it. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a figure lying at the bottom of the stairs. "Help me!" Sonic pleaded, his eyes wide. "Sonic?" Buster said. Sonic reached out to the sheriff, but it was too late as a singe gunshot echoed through the house. Amy had snuck up behind Buster, shotgun in hand. When she pulled the trigger, the shot killed him almost instantly, hitting most of his vital organs. Buster's lifeless body teetered for a second before falling forward and tumbling down the steps, landing a few feet from Sonic. Amy stood at the top of the stairs and produced a syringe from her pocket and walked down the steps toward Sonic._

"_I'm sorry you had to see that Sonic. But I couldn't let that happen. He's here now. Soon others will come. We must be together." She said preparing to inject Sonic with the stuff in the syringe. "It must end now. I love you."_

_He wanted to throw up and cry, but he had to hold it together. He turned his gaze away from the sheriffs lifeless body and locked eyes with her. "I love you too." he said, voice calm and cool._

_Amy stopped dead in her tracks._

"_And yes... we do belong together. But I must finish the book for you. I want to make you happy before we go." Sonic said, the wheels spinning in his head. If he could just get back to his room, he could buy himself a little more time. Up until now, he'd been trying to go at everything conservatively, quietly. Now he had to use force and if it meant he was going to die, at least he'd go down swinging. Seeing the grill had already given him half of his plan._

"_Oh." Amy gasped. "You always know what to say to make me feel better." a smile formed on her face. "Let's get you out of this basement so you can finish your work." She said, putting the syringe back in her pocket and walked back up the stairs to get his wheelchair. When she was out of sight, Sonic grabbed the can of lighter fluid lying on a box to his right and stuffed it into the front of his pants, managing to hide it just enough so the outline of the can wasn't too obvious. He shot her a smile of his own when she descended down the stairs, wheelchair in hand._


	7. Chapter 7: The Final Showdown

Chapter 7 The final showdown

Amy wheeled him back into his room and set him in front of the table. Sonic was still trying to shake the image of the sheriff from his memory and control his shaking hands. Not an easy task when Amy was standing just behind him. "I'm sorry you had to see that Sonic, but I couldn't let him find you. I can't let anyone take you away from me. I need you. Do you understand?" She asked.

"Yes, I do. You did it so we could be together forever. I realize that now." He said. The can of lighter fluid in the front of his pants was pressing down on a sensitive area and he shifted his weight to relieve the pressure; internally he breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good. How much longer do you have to go on the novel?" She asked him.

"I should be done by tonight, if I start right now." Sonic said. He had been writing non-stop for the last six weeks, only stopping long enough to sleep.

"Of course. I'll let you get started. If you need anything, just let me know." Amy said before she left the room. Sonic thought he heard her mutter something under her breath, but shook it off. He didn't want to know what she said anyway. As soon as she was out of sight, he quickly took the can out of his pants and stuck it behind him. In the basement, he'd grabbed the can of lighter fluid as a spur of the moment thing. But now that he had it, he had to figure out what to do with it.

Until then, it was business as usual. He'd write a good chunk, and call her in to proofread it; fill in the missing 'n' s and whatnot. As day dissolved into night, he reached the final few pages and, in that stretch of time, formulated his final plan. He knew that, more than likely he was going to end up in a fight and his only weapon he had within his reach was the typewriter. It was old, bulky and felt like it weighed at least 50 lbs but it was better than nothing. The only problem with that was getting her into a position where he could actually _hit_ her with it. It wasn't like she was going to stand still. Fortunately, he knew her one weakness and he could easily exploit it. As he reached the last page, he typed the final period and leaned back in his chair and called out to her.

"Amy?"

"What is it darling?" She asked, eagerly popping her head through the door.

"I'm on the last chapter." He said, a smile on her face.

"Can I take a sneak peek?" Amy asked.

"No. You'll just have to wait." Sonic told her, smile still on his face.

"Let me guess, Ian is the father of Misery's baby- No! It's Winthorpe, isn't it?" She asked, her voice cracking like a teenager fawning over her favorite idol.

"I can't tell you." Sonic said.

"Not even a hint?!" Amy complained.

"You'll have to wait." Sonic said with a devilish smile on his face.

"OOOOH! You're such a tease!" Amy squealed, turning around to leave. Before she could get out of the room, Sonic stopped her.

"Wait, Amy." Sonic said.

"What is it, Sonic." She asked. popping her head back inside the room.

"You don't know?" he said, looking at her.

Amy's face was blank for a few seconds before she remembered. "Oh that's right. How could I forget? Chilidogs! I know how much you like em'." Amy said. Sonic loved his Chili Dog's. But he had not had a craving for them since he had been trapped in what he deemed 'The Funhouse'.

"That's one." He said. "What are the others?" He asked.

"You'll need a cigar and a single match to light it with. Even though you don't smoke and you never had, you have just one as a sort of celebration after every novel you've written." Amy said, going two for three.

It was true. Sonic detested smoking. He never even thought about it until he finished his first Misery novel. When he heard how well it had done, he decided to do something special to celebrate. Every time he wrote a new novel, he always had a single cigar. Never inhaling, just letting the smoke fill his mouth and blowing it out.

"That's right. And the third one?" Sonic asked, awaiting her answer.

"And you need a bottle of Champaign on ice and one glass." She said.

"Very good." Sonic said, giving her an approving smile.

"I take it you'll be done soon?" Amy asked.

Sonic nodded. "All I have to do is finish the last page." He said.

"Well then, I'll go get what you need." She said.

It only took him ten minutes to finish writing the last page. He pulled it off the typewriters roller and placed it upside down on top of the others like he did before and called out to Amy to let her know he had finished. Amy walked into the room carrying everything Sonic needed to properly end his novel. She sat the plate holding the Chilidog next to him, followed by the bucket of Champaign on the table and finally, the single cigar and match. She looked at him. "Did I do good?" She asked, looking for a sign of approval.

"You did perfect." Sonic said with a smile, which faded quickly. "There's just one thing you forgot."

"But I didn't forget anything." She said. He swore he could actually see her mind trying to figure out what it was she'd forgotten.

"This time... we'll need two glasses." Sonic said to her.

"Oh, Sonic!" Amy said with excitement. She left the room to get the extra glass and as soon as she was out of the room, Sonic leapt into action. He grabbed the novel he had just finished writing, flipped it over so the whole thing was right side up and set it on the floor, taking the top page off and setting it aside. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the can of lighter fluid and opened the lid. Turning it upside down, he squeezed the can and emptied the contents of the can onto the pages sitting on the floor, completely soaking them. He reached down and pulled them apart and made sure the middle got some too. The bulk of it was soaked and some of the fluid was spilling onto the hardwood floor, but he didn't want to be cautious and leave nothing to chance. Once that was done, he tossed the empty can into a corner and grabbed the title page of the book, crumpling it up and fashioning a crude torch. He grabbed the match in his left hand, holding it between his thumb and forefinger and waited for Amy to come back into the room.

Sonic could hear her whistling as she came closer. _Here goes nothing_. he thought as she came through the door. She had a smile on her face and when she saw Sonic holding the paper and the match in his hand, it disappeared from her face. "Sonic, what are you doing?" She asked, her eyes shifting back and forth between the match and the 'torch' in his hand.

A grin appeared on Sonic's face. "You know how nobody knew who Misery's real father was? Or how she was the only one that knew who the father of her baby was? Was it Ian, or Winthorpe? It's all right here." He said, lighting the match with his thumbnail and lighting the piece of paper in his hands.

"NO SONIC, YOU CAN'T!" Amy protested, her eyes growing twice their size.

"Why not?" he hissed, "I learned it from you." Sonic said as he bent down, lighting the pages and setting them ablaze.

Amy ran over and fell to her knees; desperately trying to put out the fire which had consumed her beloved Misery with her bare hands. "NO, NO! NOT MY MISERY!" She screamed, trying desperately to extinguish the flames. _Perfect!_ Sonic thought. As soon as she was on the floor right in front of him, he reached over and grabbed the typewriter off the table. "Nnngh!" he grunted as lifted it up over his head. Despite it's heavy weight, adrenaline allowed him to lift it with ease, and he brought it straight down on Amy's head, a dull thud and a 'crack' echoing through the room as it came into contact with the back of her head and fell beside her as Sonic rolled as fast as he could to the door.

"Uugh!" Amy grunted as the typewriter came into contact with her skull. She fell to the ground only slightly dazed and when she came to her senses, the arm of her blouse had caught fire and she desperately patted at the sleeves with her bare hand, putting out the flames in a couple seconds but not without melting polyester sticking to her fur and bare skin. Sonic's wheelchair was too bulky to maneuver out the bedroom door, the chair almost as large as the doorframe itself and while he was busy trying to escape, Amy jumped up with lightning speed and grabbed hold of the handgrips of his chair. He turned and saw a look of pure anger on her face and in a second, she pulled him away from the door. He tried desperately to fight her off, but she swatted his hands away and wrapped both her hands around his throat and squeezed, pushing him back to the wall and against the window in front of the table.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU LYING COCKSUCKER!" She screamed, hands tightening around his throat. She pulled him forward and slammed his head into the window behind him, cracking the pane of glass.

Amy for some reason, backed away from Sonic and he struggled to draw in a breath and coughed as she released her grip; then he saw why she'd let go. Amy reached into her pocket and grabbed the gun she carried. She leveled it, but with her hand burned and in pain and when she squeezed the trigger, her aim went off center and instead of hitting him square in the head, the bullet struck him in the shoulder. *BANG* "AAAH!" he yelled in pain as the bullet struck his flesh. Amy's winced in pain as well and with her momentary lapse in concentration, he rolled the chair toward Amy. She tried to recover and aim the weapon at his head, but the distance between them was too close and, ignoring the pain in his legs, he pushed himself out of the chair and tackled her, somehow taking her down to the ground. His legs were screaming and his shoulder was crying but he ignored them both as the fight went to close quarters. Amy tried to point the gun at Sonic again, but he grabbed her arm and him being on top, managed to keep it at bay. In her struggle. she accidentally pulled the trigger, causing the gun to fire off it's second round. Holding her wrist in his hand, he clenched it and banged it against the floor, causing her to lose her grip on the gun. Her eyes went wide, he could see the surprise in her eyes that he was able to put up a fight against her.

But it didn't last long as she shifted her weight and they both rolled around the floor for a minute, Amy scratching and clawing at him and Sonic trying to inflict what damage he could until they came upon the pages of the burnt novel, still smoldering on the floor. Luck was on his side for once as they stopped right next to it, Sonic still on top of her. He glanced quickly over at the smoldering pile and grabbed a fist full of charred paper and held it above his head. "YOU WANT IT? YOU WANT IT?!" he screamed. "EAT IT! EAT IT TILL YOU CHOKE, YOU SICK... TWISTED FUCK!" Sonic yelled, stuffing the hand full of burnt paper in Amy's mouth. "AAAK!" Amy gagged as the charred bits filled her mouth. In retalliation, she brought her knee up and nailed Sonic in the groin. "GAAAfuuu..." He moaned as he rolled off the floor beside Amy on his left side. She rolled over on her right and began spitting up the paper, letting out a string of words that weren't too happy.

Sonic rolled over on his back, clutching his groin, feeling the swelling increasing with each passing second. "Shiiiiit." he moaned. Through half opened eyes, he saw Amy get to her feet and when she took a step, Sonic threw his leg's in her path. It hurt like hell, but it was worth it and it caused her to trip and fall to the ground. *Thunck* Sonic didn't see but heard a sickening thud and when he looked up, he noticed she'd smacked her head on the corner of the typewriter and a small pool of blood forming just under her head.

Sonic let out a long sigh and let himself regain some of his stamina. "You... are one... tough... bitch. You know that?" he said breathlessly to Amy's lifeless body. After he rested, he knew he still had to drag himself through the house and find her keys and, summoning up what strength he had left, began to crawl toward the door. He reached the door and when he reached up to open it, a piercing "AAAHH!" broke the silence as Amy screamed and jumped on his back, brushing against a shelf and causing a few of the items close to the edge of the shelf to fall off.

She clawed at the back of his head and Sonic struggled to get away and she immediately seized the opportunity and latched onto his throat again. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" She hissed as he looked around for a weapon he could use. Off to his right, he spotted a small metal statue of a pig that had fallen when she jumped him from behind. He reached out for it, but it was just beyond his grasp. He managed to touch it with his fingertips, but caused it to fall over. Amy was almost completely on his back, trying to get an arm around his neck to secure a better choke on him.

Sonic knew if he couldn't reach the small statue now, he would die. He made one last lunge for it, and finally managed to grab hold of it. _Fuck, it's now or never._ he thought and with his final burst of energy, he rolled over despite being pinned underneath Amy. She reached for his throat, but Sonic was a little quicker and hit her in the arm with the statue, stunning her for a second. In her blind rage, she hadn't even noticed he'd grabbed the statue, and before she could react, he brought it into contact with the side of her head.

It turned completely to the left and when her gaze turned back to him again, her eyes were lifeless and the expression on her face was blank. She didn't even try to fight back when Sonic hit her square in the face with the bottom of the statue as hard as he could, breaking her nose in the process. Sonic let his arm fall to his side and released the statue, completely spent.

Amy's arms fell to her side and she slowly cast her gaze down on him. The rage that had been on display was gone, replaced by a look of what Sonic could only describe as peace. Her eyes were cold, lifeless and her breathing was so shallow, he wouldn't have know she was breathing if not for her straddling him. Her body began to go limp and she mouthed something that Sonic couldn't make out, then her body lunged forward and she collapsed on top of him with one final breath. "Ugh!" he grunted, air forced out of his lungs as she collapsed on top of him. He reached up cautiously with two fingers and felt for a pulse, but didn't find one. She was dead.

"Nnngh!" he grunted as he grabbed her shoulder, managing to roll her lifeless body off of his. "Thank you God." he mumbled breathlessly. Once he was able to move, he grabbed hold of the bed and pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked over at her lifeless body. He couldn't believe it at first and thought she was playing dead. He kept his eyes on her for a good five minutes and when she didn't move, he knew it was finally over. Her eyes were still open and he gently reached over and pulled them closed, then dragged himself to his chair and managed to haul himself up into it. "Shit." he said, almost out of breath again.

When he managed to catch his breath, he reached over and pulled the blanket off the bed and covered her body with it as best he could. "Better than you deserve." he said and wheeled himself out into the hallway and grabbed the keys to her truck hanging on a hook by the door. "Please don't be locked." he muttered as he laid a hand on the doorknob and gave it a slight turn. When it didn't catch, he knew it wasn't locked and he smiled as he flung the door open.

The cold air hit him and he smiled, a single tear rolling down his cheek. Freedom. Rolling the chair out onto the porch, the ground was still a little muddy, but it didn't matter to him as he rolled off the porch and down the front steps. "Guh!" he exclaimed as the chair hit hard; Sonic shook it off and rolled toward her truck.

"Who's calling at this hour?" Sally said out loud as she reached over and grabbed her phone. "Hello?" she said when she picked it up.

"Is this Sally Acorn?" a man's voice said.

"Yes." Sally replied.

"My name is John Purdell from the Station Square Police Dept. I'm calling about your boyfriend, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sally almost dropped the phone when she heard his name and tears started falling from her face. "Yes?" she said. She knew this was the call she'd been dreading.

"Well ma'am, he's alive." the man said.

Sally broke into full blown tears. "Wh... where is... *sob* where is he? Is *sob* he ok?"

"Yes ma'am. He's resting comfortably at the hospital here in Station Square." he replied.

"Thank you." Sally said as she hung up the phone. She jumped up off the couch and grabbed her purse, keys and flew out to her car, not even bothering to lock the front door. She started it up and backed out of the driveway and tore off down the road.

When she pulled up to the hospital and ran inside and up to the front desk. "Sonic. What room is he in?" she asked the nurse behind the desk. "Last name?"

"No last name. He was just brought in less than an hour ago." Sally replied.

The nurse nodded and typed his name into the computer. "Forth floor, room 19."

"Thank you." Sally said quickly and quickly made her way over to the elevators and pressed the call button; "C'mon, c'mon!" she muttered after only a few seconds. The elevator dinged and she stepped inside and hit the button marked 4 with such force, it was a wonder she didn't break it. When they opened again, she squeezed through and literally ran toward his room, causing more than a few yelps of surprise. When she finally reached his room she went in, their eyes met and he sat up in bed. "Sal?"

Sally smiled, dropped her purse on the floor and ran over to his bedside, embracing him and giving him a long kiss. "Oh Sonic," she said, tears falling from her eyes and onto his gown. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Sally said, covering him in kisses.

He didn't say anything. He just held her in his arms and smiled. When they broke, Sally pulled a chair up to the side of his bed and sat down just as the Doctor walked in.

"Good morning. My name is Dr. Phillips. How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Pretty damn good." Sonic said glancing over at Sally.

"Well, I have great news." Dr. Phillips said. "Your ankles and legs will be fine. They should fully heal after a month and we'll go ahead and get that bullet out of your shoulder."

"Bullet?! What bullet? Who shot you?" Sally demanded. "Don't worry." Sonic said, squeezing her hand. "I'll tell you later."

"I don't know who helped you, but whoever they are, they did a great job with what they had. I'm going to keep you in here for 48 hours, just for observation. We'll run a few tests but from what I can tell, everything looks good."

"Thank you Doctor." Sally said as he walked out of the room.

And they were good on their word; two days came and passed and he was released from the hospital. That night, they had a small party to celebrate Sonic's return home, Sonic, Sally, Tails and Knuckles; even Shadow showed up.

After the party had died down, Sonic called Sally over to the couch and she sat down. Sally saw that Sonic didn't have his trademark grin and she knew he wanted to talk. "What is it?" She asked.

"You remember when I was in the hospital and you wanted me to tell you what happened?" Sonic asked. "Mm-hmm." Sally nodded. She knew something bad had happened to him, but she had no idea what it was. Usually she could get a good read on what he was thinking or what he was feeling, but this time, he was like an enigma. That 'something' was being held tightly inside of him until he was ready to talk about it.

Sonic took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It happened a little while after I spoke to you from the cabin..."

A while later

"Oh god, I had no idea." Sally said, taking it all in; she wanted to cry for him but held her emotions in check.

"It's ok." Sonic said, reaching over and grabbing her hand. "Right now, I'm here with you and that's all that matters." Sonic said and leaned over and gave her a kiss, something that he'd been longing to do. They embraced on the couch, hands running over each other. The one thing that had kept him going was sitting in front of him and all that torture, all that pain he endured was nothing but a horrible short section in the book of his life now. "I love you." Sonic said when they broke apart, both breathing heavily; he smiled as both stood up at the same time and headed off for the bedroom.

But things weren't so easy after that. Sonic awoke several times that night, dreaming he was still in Amy's house and every time he did, he woke up screaming. Sally would wake up a second later and after reassuring him he was back home, he would calm down.

After fully healing and publishing the Misery novel he had completed while he was in 'The Funhouse'. Because it had been the second thing he had to focus on to keep his sanity, he had almost all of it committed to memory. In the end, he decided, since the character of his book had 'sacrificed' herself in a fire a few months ago so he could live, he decided to resurrect her, and finish off the book with her and her baby alive and well, much to the elation of the fans.

It had sold well, easily crossing the million mark and earning him a nice chunk of change in the process and to celebrate, Sonic and Sally had set up a lunch meeting with his publisher, Paul. Another of his traditions after a book sold well. It was also a sort of thank you in a way, since he had been the only publisher in Mobius willing to give Sonic a shot. After all, who was going to take a chance on someone with no writing experience anyway?

"So," Paul said as he took a sip from his wine glass, "Where's Sally? I hope she'll be joining us." he said, setting the glass back down on the table.

"She's just running a little late. Should be here soon." Sonic asked, taking a sip from his wine glass as well; one of the rare times he allowed himself to drink any type of alcohol. Off in the distance, his eyes focused on a female Mobian pushing a dessert cart toward their table. When she got six tables away from where he and Paul were eating, he saw that it was Amy pushing the cart. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but when she came a table closer, there was no doubt it was her. His heart skipped a beat and he slowly put his hand on top of his dinner knife in case she tried something and with her track record, there was no doubt she would.

"Look Sonic, I've got to ask this or they'll kick me out of the publishing business." Paul said, a nervous look on his face. "I heard about what happened from Sally and, well... have you ever though about writing about what happened in that house?" Sonic wanted to keep a lid on what had happened to him, and while Paul was a friend, it was something that he wanted to keep as quiet as possible.

Sonic watched Amy, watching her make her way toward their table slowly. "It's okay." Sonic said. "I can't say I haven't thought about it either to be honest." Sonic replied, watching Amy as made her way to their table. Sonic kept his hand just above his knife, ready to lunge at her at the first sign of trouble. Three tables away; _Just try something._ When she got two tables away, Sonic realized it wasn't Amy, but a woman who worked there. _What the... _he wondered. As she stopped at their table, Sonic quickly took his hand away from his knife.

"I don't mean to interrupt but, aren't you Sonic the hedgehog?" The woman pushing the cart asked.

"Yes. Yes I am." Sonic replied with a smile.

"_I just wanted to say that I'm you're number one fan." The woman said, a smile on her face._

"_Thank you. That's very kind." Sonic said, feeling his stomach turn._


End file.
